David Bahn – Reflections

Acts 15:1-11

But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Sometimes you just have to stand up for what you believe. Hobby Lobby is doing that today as the Supreme Court will hear their case for allowing the company’s explicitly-Christian values to remain unviolated in the face of the new healthcare mandate. Patrick Henry famously said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Rosa Parks decided one day not to give up her seat on the bus. Martin Luther declared, “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me.”

But where do we draw the line? Why, for example, might we be charitable with one another regarding the mode of baptism, or the form of worship, but stand firm on issues regarding Jesus’ identity as God in the flesh? How do we determine that it is OK for a group to meet to worship on a Saturday or Thursday night, but stand strongly against a group’s requirement that worship be only on Saturday? How could it be that Paul refused to have Titus circumcised, but chose to circumcise Timothy on a different occasion?

The answer lies in the center-most tenant of one’s faith. Faith centered in the grace of God will seek to see how one decision or another flows from or toward faith. Faith centered elsewhere will lead to capricious or fickle conclusions. Worse yet faith centered in anything other than the grace of God in Jesus Christ will become a stumbling block, leading people away from the true hope we have in Jesus.

When the men come down from Judea, requiring circumcision for salvation, the issue would ultimately become one of centering. Where would the central place of the Christian faith be established: Jerusalem or Judea? What would people be pointed to when questions about proper practices were to be decided? What is the essential core of our faith?

Some speak about religion – and even Christianity – as a series of dos and don’ts: “Do this. Don’t do that.” The men from Judea were of that persuasion.  Better to speak of our faith as the simple word, “Done.” Jesus has done it for us. His death and resurrection, and his perfect righteousness are our salvation. Whatever adornment we may hang on our lives and faith practice will best point to God’s grace and flow from that center. Peter’s statement, “…we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will,” centers our faith squarely in God’s grace. Any other center will be a wobbly-wheel faith – dangerously prone to jar us from the path of life.

Acts 15:1-11

But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. 3 So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you,that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart,bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”